Summary:

As the time is passing by, the number of restaurants, retails, spa, salons, etc. are also increasing. If you’re also one of those running any such businesses then you must have come across many schedules related problems. Businesses in the hospitality industry face problems of clients scheduling.

Both small and big businesses deal with arranging and managing schedules. Many time the timing of clients would overlap and then either they will have to make the clients wait or shift one of them in other time slot which can really leave a bad impression on the client.

So, schedules are very much important thing. Traditionally people used to maintain and arrange schedules manually. But those days are gone. Now we have many scheduling apps and software using which we can easily arrange and maintain schedules.

One such app is HotSchedules which today I am going to review here. HotSchedules is an all-in-one scheduling tool which makes it easy to create, maintain and communicate your employee’s schedule. It’s not only a scheduling tool but also provides you to manage your workplace and control your labour cost. The plus point is that HotSchedules app is available for both Android as well as iOS devices. Today we will discuss the features, services, positive and negative points of Hotschedules mobile app.

HotSchedules is a decent application with a complete list of features required in any professional scheduling tool. It is a great time-saver which helps you to quickly arrange maintain and communicate the schedules.

Easy and user-friendly Interface

The most important thing in an application is its Interface. Well, it’s the plus point of HotSchedules as it provides a clean, user friendly, non-cluttered interface. You do not need any additional knowledge to use HotSchedules. All the options and tabs are self explanatory.

First of all, for using HotSchedules you need to have a valid HotSchedules account. When you first open the app, it will show all the shifts or work schedule. Also, if there is a notification about anything, lets say for a meeting then it will show that up at the top of the main window.

At the left top corner there is a navigation button. On pressing that button it will take you to the menu of HotSchedules. The menu includes Time-off and requests, Staff, messaging, rooster approvals, ToDo Logbook and many more. You only need to select your desired option.

Create schedules in no time

Now just forget about that time-consuming and terrible paper work or hard-to-manage worksheets for setting up schedules. HotSchedules is here to help you in minimizing the work load and time. Using this app you can set up shifts for you employees in a few minutes.

HotSchedules keeps all you data in one place so that you can conveniently create better and most accurate schedules using time-off requests.

The application also provides a number of templates for creating schedules. You can choose any of those templates as per your desire.

View your schedule from anywhere

HotSchedules app enables you to view your schedules right on your mobile from anywhere at any time. This makes you to never forget about any of your shifts. All of your shifts shows up at the home page of HotSchedules application.

It shows all the details like date, day and timing of the work schedule in a very good manner. So with HotSchedules app you will never forget about any of your work schedule.

You can also sync schedules with your mobile calendar for more profitable results. However, I found a drawback that it does not allow you to copy schedules from one week to another week.

Control labour costs

This is really helpful feature of HotSchedules. The app helps you to save labour cost. HotSchedules provides you advance forecast and report facilities. So, from now on you will be able to schedule right person at the right time. This will help you control labour costs.

Free forecast and Reports

HotSchedules enables you predict forecasts. On the basis of POS sales and labour data you can accurately predict future schedules up to 4 weeks.

You can get reports of many things like labour budget, daily rosters overtime-alerts, employee certifications and many more.

Easily swap, update, deny and approve shifts

Well, this feature is really helpful for team members as well as manager or owner. If you ‘re manager of the business then you can easily create manage, communicate deny or approve shifts. The app enables you to send notifications to the team members or employees regarding their shifts.

If you’re team member or employee then you can send the request to release or swap shifts. It takes only a few clicks for requesting to swap shifts. You just need to click on the desired shift and then select your option from swap this shiftand release this shift.

Quick Notifications

HotSchedules is all about scheduling the notifications about shifts or other things which are important. Lets say you want to schedule a meeting and need to tell all the employees then you can simply send a notification regarding the meeting to all the team members.

Team members can also set up specific notifications like schedule changes, shift locations, etc.

Well developed communication platform

Communication is an essential thing to work in a team. HotSchedules provides this feature also. It provides you a well-developed communication system. You can send messages to other team members via text messages or emails. You can also broadcast messages across stores. However, you can only send simple text messages. It does not allow you to attach files to the messages.

Get Employee contact information with one click

Now you will not have to go through huge records to get information of a particular employee. Using HotSchedules you can easily get contact information of employees through their name.

Pros of HotSchedules

Easy to use.

24×7 Customer support.

Quick notifications.

easily create, maintain and communicate schedules.

Supports both, Android and iOS devices.

Free reports and forecasts.

Cons of HotSchedules

The app is not free to download. Some people might find it costly.

Can’t attach files in messages to employees

It does not allow to copy schedules from one week to another

Download HotSchedules for your device

Final Words

Overall, HotSchedules is all-in-one scheduling application. It helps you manage and create schedules in a convenient way. The app is very helpful for both team members as well as owner/manager. The communication system is also very strong. Employees and message each about schedule or shifts via messages email or Hotschedule platform. So, I found it really nice app. Some users on the app store have reported some speed lag and glitches, I hope the developers are working to solve this problem.

About the author

Shivani Srivastava

Shivani shrivastava is an active tech blogger. She has graduated from Delhi University. She has contributed a number of great and informative articles to the internet. Apart from blogging she loves music, games, puzzles and reading. Share your views with Shivani in the comments.